For me it's GOOD BUY you can do many things on this controller. update is coming very soon i hope.

Are you experiencing audio drop outs? Platter problems in vinyl mode? Issues with the software? Or no issues at all!??

for me it was a goodbye. coming from traktor i first moved to scratch live and found it to be an equal or even better DVS alternative. as soon as the vci 380 came out i grabbed one and was disappointed by the limitations of itch in general and the early bugs of the 380/or its itch version .

there's a lot to list, starting with the audio drop outs which seem harder to fix than we think.

the 380 for me has been completely unusuable as a standalone mixer, because of its awkward vu meters signaling whatever they want and the tiny headroom making very loud input (from an SL3 for example) distort very fast.

then there is stuff which is just the way itch is. poor effects for example. bur one thing that also drove me crazy was the lack of Pre Fader Listening for the effects.

auto gain not working should be a pretty quick hotfix. but I'm wondering why it's not.

these are just some of the things that made me return the unit for money back and wait for the (slow it seems) developments.

right now i'm back to using a vci 400 on Traktor as a console setup and Scratch Live as DVS. Waiting for things to happen.

by the way did i mention that itch 2.2.1 is destroying my wav files?

it's fixed in SL 2.4.2 so why is it so hard to release any kind of hotfix for this crucial bug ?

Good Buy - and my Go To. I don't seem to experience any of the issues that everyone is complaining about. I'm an SSL, ITCH, and TP2 w/S2 user and they all work great for me.

I've only had one issue and in reverse of what David_E just mentioned. I had .wav files in Serato/ITCH and when used in TP2 they become corrupted. Not sure if its just that both programs don't want to work well together. I fixed it because I have back ups of my original music. Now I just have separate Serato and Traktor HD's - problem solved.

....but as always, what works for me, may not work for you - always consider the weakest link in your set up and make it the strongest to ensure you wont have any issues moving forward.

-Al

For me and countless others the VCI-380 was supposed to the holy grail of all-in-one, compact, 2-deck controller solutions, but sadly due to critical missing features that are a huge departure from it's predecessors (not to mention nearly every other ITCH controller) the VCI-380 quickly became a $1K paperweight that had to be returned (or sold). My suggestion is that you thoroughly do your homework on this unit before purchasing so you don't make the same mistake many of us did. These issues have been covered many times here on this forum and the official responses from the manufacturers are documented as well. You will learn whether or not the VCI-380 missing features and inconsistent behaviors are relevant to how you perform so an informed purchasing decision can be made. Caveat emptor and good luck.

For me its a GOOD BUY... everything run smoothly...I had issues with the "limiter light coming on...but that was fixed by reducing the TRIM and increase the OUTPUT level...just my $0.02

Thanks everyone! DJ MDX, how long ago did you buys yours? I am hoping that the next shipment is tweaked and optimized!! Sounds like the ones early on had the most problems? Thank you all again for your input

Slammin

Bought mine a couple of months ago & love it, I haven't had any problems, plug n play

The unit is good the software that runs it needs the tweaking....

I bought mine as soon as they were available in the States (USA) - so it's one of the 1st that hit our shores.

I wonder if the new beta will help anyone, although there didn't seem to be much in terms of the VCI-380 - maybe I missed something....very, very, tired right now...

This

Also, being able to play around with the sample workflow has been some major fun at home. Don't think I would do it at a gig just yet, but man is it a lot of fun to just trigger the samples and build up songs.

I bought it mostly for its dual usage of being a standalone mixer, but the lack of a crossfade reverse has put a damper on that. You can reverse in the software which is fine, but if you use it in standalone there is no switch, gotta plug it in backwards for a work around like the good old days haha.

I think this has been fixed in Itch 2.2.2

I agree with this comment "because of its awkward vu meters signaling whatever they want"

I still have problems with the LEd meters they don't reposed correctly.
Also when you change between effects you get audio clipping as well.

Vestax has been slow to resolve this or at least let us know when its going to be sorted out.

Sascha

I got the same problem with the DDJ S1 (on cue not on master).

After sorting out the headphone overdrive setting, I found the VU meters to be excellent and predictable. Apparently the cue level is taken from the headphone channel, and having the overdrive cranked in the settings (came that way, I guess) jacks them up when trying to compare levels when cueing. Don't know if this is your issue, but thought it worth mentioning.

Cheers

in my case, this hasn't been the problem. turning down the overdrive was one of the first things I did.

I've had much more problems with the meters being very unreliable. meaning not every sound playing is being displayed by the LEDs. It's been most obviously when playing a simple steady 4x4 edm beat. One would expect the meters to display every single hit the same way. But in my case some were displayed way too low or weren't even displayed at all. The meters simply weren't reflecting the music being played.

maybe I've had a faulty unit, but I've already heard of other guys with the same problem. maybe others don't really care about it. I would like to know if this is only happening to a handful of people, or if it's a widespread problem.

I had one for about 2 weeks and I returned it. It was an absolute NIGHTMARE. I was having issues up the wazoo with it (read my thread over on the Vestax forum)...hardware as well as software issues. Sadly, the software issues were enough in and of themselves to make it pretty much impossible for me to use, but when I added in the hardware problems I was having (defective unit), I just gave up and sent it back for a refund. A friend of mine has one and he's very happy with it. I played with his unit for a while and even spun a gig on it...I still wasn't sold on it. Nice jogs, solid construction, but lacking some very basic functionality that many people are complaining about. It seems that you either love it or you hate it, and you either have lots of actual issues (bugs) with it or you don't. Weird.

I agree with the above posters who have said to thoroughly research it. Then I suggest you find a retailer who has a demo unit set up and put it through its paces. It should be the absolute BEST Itch controller available, but in my personal experience it wasn't. I ended up going back to my Twitch for now while I evaluate the market and try to decide which direction I'm going to go.

My $0.02, your mileage may vary.

I also didn't have a good experience with the VCI 380.. My crossfader stopped working on my VCI 300 so figured might as well upgrade.. I was super busy in the summer bought the VC 380 I was getting error message download all the software links they sent nothing worked..

I returned it after 2 days after of trouble shooting with Vestax ended up fixing VCI 300..

I was excited to do the upgrade but that experience has me feeling I should look at other options for my next upgrade sorry Vestax.

I'm sorry to hear that Pete...I've got nothing but praises with VCI380.
This is what I did
I upgraded my Dj Rig bought a macbook pro OSX Lion and then bought the VCI380

I used to Dj with a PC laptop dual core and VCI300 with no problems....I just had a feeling that the upgrade would only work with Mac at the beginning....People here at the forums are complaining about it.....I used the vci380 the whole summer with no problems using video as well.

Love my VCI 380 (actually one of the best club dj controler) but still don't received my licence key for EZ-Rok 1.1.0 (a record soft) from vestax... T_T

What the hell is EZ-Rok?

serato.com

Thanks for the info.

Thanks Everyone, So far I LOVE this controller!! I will take it to gig this coming weekend. Keeping my fingers crossed!! I use a MacBook Pro...should be ok!!???

Thanks again!!

Slammin'

Using it at a midi control surface and mixer with turntables & an SL1 running video (rock solid)....or just with Itch for some video & audio gigs. I needed a new MacBook Pro to get it to run right with itch though. My 2.5ghz pre-unibody wasn't quite enough for video & itch with the 380 or twitch for that matter. The new 2.7 i7 runs like a champ with no issues.

Welcome to the club :)

I'm just on the verge of returning mine after four months of wrestling with the bugs. It's a shame, on paper it promised so much.

You're not alone. Join the crowd. Enormous disappointment the VCI-380 has turned out to be.

I just can't agree, the 380 is awesome, I run mine with a Mac pro, hassle free,

I mix and show reggae, the functions for this are awesome

I personly think it just needs a software good enough to benefit it's true potential

The pads and platters are as good as any thing out there

I'm glad your unit is working and you're enjoying it. If you had the problems I have with mine I doubt you would be as happy.

Yea thats fair enough , is it the unit or program tho , as serato dj sounds promising , could be worth the wait

Well at first I thought it was ITCH now I'm certain its a faulty unit. Level indicators and Pads randomly failing are the two main culprits (I have a thread open with a vid attached showing the pads failing) but add in a sprinkling of the other issues with gain and differing levels on either deck oh and not being able to record too!
I did persevere until 2.2.2 to see if the problems would go away but they didn't and so enough is enough for me. The real breaker was that I was supposed to bo taking part in a mixify live event today but my unit has other ideas !
Anyway, Its a call to the supplier tomorrow for a refund. Although I'm looking at the option of paying a few more $$ and getting the Pioneer unit as I really do like the simplicity of the serato software.

You must not require traditional looping then. For those that do, the VCI-380 is nothing more than an expensive paperweight.

That seems a bit extreme. I make extensive use of looping in my shows and find the difference in the way loops are activated to be acceptable and in many cases useful. I like it better the old way, but jumping to the start of the loop on activation isn't a deal breaker and is more than made up for by the ease of using the loop roll functionality as well as the slicer.

I do understand for those who DON'T REQUIRE this functionality for whatever reason(s) this to be a non-issue, but again, IF you REQUIRE traditional looping this view isn't extreme at all. Example: Those that have countless stored loops built up in their SSL/ITCH libraries over the years for successfully getting in/out of NON-quantized tracks while mixing, yeah the FORCED jumping loops thing is a complete deal-breaker.

I dont require alot of looping in my sets , so its never been an issue , and like said above ive made use of the way you can do it when needed , i suppose it wont suit all , but as controllers i think its brilliant ,

Dj should make the controller next level

I do too except for the glaring boo boo. Just a shame Serato and their "partners" didn't think to include a simple option in the menu for users to select how they want/need looping to behave. That way both camps would be good to go.

Very True!! Traktor is starting to look better & better. Damn!!!

its a sad day, the end to a great experiment...but after upgrading my MBP, changing out my bus powered hard drive to eliminate drop outs and finally getting the thing to be stable and reliable at all of my gigs after weeks of stress...the left channel goes down an hour before bar time.

I was using an SL1 with the VCI-380 being used as a mixer and midi control surface for turntable control of a music video show with Serato Scratch Live. After mixing in a loop in Satisfaction from Ghosts at about 1am, the left channel just dropped from the mains and the booth output, never to return. Signal still present in the headphones and the meter, just no sound. I spent the rest of the night "instant doubling" beatmatched tracks to the working channel or live dropping to reset cue point starts...that sucked.

I work at DJ shop and recently sent another device in for a warranty claim for the same issue. Feeling like we all got burned by Vestax on this one. The potential of the VCI-380 is amazing, but I can't afford to lose clients over it.

Same issue with mine 380. Left channel suddenly do not work. But but if you pull on it, it will work! See a couple of Help Threads in the Help areas. A few are experiencing the same issue. This seems to be very common with the VCI-380 units. What's up with that? I am bringing mine unit in to a retailer where I bought it from for repair, etc. A friend once told me that I shouldn't touch Vestax products but I told him that I like their PMC-05 mixer and really love it. I should have listen....

Having said that, I agree that the VCI-380 is so capable and has a nice feel to it. I got used to it only having played for 2 weeks.

Very bummer indeed!

I know two store manager in France and a distributor, I've never heard about this issue but it's look like it is common on the other side of the Atlantic.
My VCI 380 purrs absolutly no problems.

With NYE so close...I had to bust mine open & repair it. New left fader board on the way. The two solder points at the top of the fader detached from the board. I attempted to heat the solder joint to get the the solder to reconnect, but we wound up scribing the board to get a better solder point. The board looks a mess, but will work for the weekend...I hope.

The best I could do was to sold the VCI 380. After tree years with the VCI300, a great machine despite the issue with mic and the middle sound quiality, just waiting for new vestax xontroller, after the disapointment of the VCI400 only been only for traktor and the final awaited VCI 380 was worser as expected. The sound is great, pads are nice but some important features has been removed. It seems to be that vestax think that the whole world is djing electro&co music. Moreover a booth output with both control at the back does not neeed anyone. I've bought the pioneer DDJ S1, a solid controller has no booth but it does exactly what you want.

VCI-400 will be Serato DJ Approved Soon - Just an FYI if your still set on it - serato.com

I have had a vci-380 right during launch.
I use it for small functions and it is a wicked controller. Although after the 2nd month of owning it the right side fader would cut out when u pushed upwards on it. So i took it to long and mcuade since thats where i bought it from and they sent it in for repair and then 3 months later got my unit back repaired.
After recieving it seemed the 1/4" mic input stopped working and the headset volume knob also would stop working at random times. So i took it in for repair again last week. And long and mcuade gave me a loaner unit wich is also a vci-380 (thank god)
And so im waiting for it to be repaired a 2nd time. Also patiently waiting waiting for serato dj update as well for this unit.
My advice to anyone who is going to buy this unit is that it is a wicked controller i love it but the build quality is not the best like all vestax products soo plz do buy the extended warranty with the unit. Just my advice

Please visit my soundcloud
Www.Soundcloud.com

Finally after two months sitting in a repair shop waiting for parts, my VCI-380 is finally fixed and returned.

I am with you. It's a wicked controller but the build quality is questionable. I have not tested the 1/4" mic input yet.

You're lucky Long and McQuade gave you a loaner. Steve's music didn't give me one!

I am not crazy about SDJ for some reason....

I'm more excited about the EFX.

How did i get a double post....lol I only clicked once.

touch wood , one early change to the channel fader , as it was dodgy , everything else perfect , no drops , glitches or nothing , been absolute perfect for what i need

Does anyone know what the release date is for SERATO DJ for the vci - 380??

Spring 2013 :)

I've had mine for just over a week. I got a returned unit (the previous owner preferred a Traktor controller) in perfect condition for a great price.

I had a Vestax Spin before and i think i've used the VCI 380 more in one week than i did my Spin in about 14 months.

I come from a SL1210 background (20 years ago) and i like the feel of the unit and software. I'm still getting used to it though. No bugs or problems. So far Good buy but come on Serato and hurry up getting DJ out for us. It feels like we're the poor boys of the Serato controller world.

err this may sound silly and i apologise but i can't find out how to return to the start of a track on my VCI 380 without using the platter to rewind the tune. I thought i could just press CUE but that just sets the point. Is there no button (on the controller or in the software) which performs this function? There was one on my Vestax Spin. Thanks

@boybrown:

To get back to the beginning of the track, you need to hit the Cue button while the song is playing. If you hit it while the track is stopped, it will set a temporary cue marker.

BleepCore,

Ohhhhhhh, thank you very much. It was driving me mental.

I couldn't trouble you to tell me how do i clear the cue points. Not the ones on the performance pads. I can do those (just lol) The manual says press shift and the CUE/IN button? i think but that don't seem to work.

cheers

As far as I can tell, you are correct...pressing shift + Cue doesn't delete a temporary cue point. If I accidentally create one I just reload the track and it's gone. Does that work for you?

BllepCore,

It does. I suppose thats a workaround but its a bit of a pain to keep on loading the track. Is there a quick shortcut to do this?

every track i load up i set one of the hot cues right at the start , incase you get asked to pull it up , press the first hot cue and bamm song restarts

its a habit now , never have problems this way

DJSP1KE,
Thanks for the tip :)

Ahhh, i've discovered the JOG SCROLL button and either CUE A or B take me back top the start of the track and clears the white cue point.

Still learning :)

Boybrown

Give it ago see what ya think

Vu meters are a pain in the ass. It's a nice unit, but don't feel it deserves the money i have paid for it. Hardware and software wise.

I came from SSL and the software feels alot more mature and nice to use, won't even talk about the effects on SSL compared to itch. Serato please do something. Do not want to feel as if I've spent so much money on a shitty product

i just got this issue bugging me at the mo! any you guys got the same issue??

---> serato.com